【正文】 arious media including newspapers, magazines, television, radio, posters and Inter, etc. Advertisement bees indispensable in the modern world. With the entry of China into WTO, lots of foreign products pour into Chinese market and pete with the homemade products. In addition, we need improve our external trade, and expand the foreign market too. Under such EnglishChinese and economic circumstances, it is necessary for us to notice and investigate English advertisement. A. The Definition of Advertisement What is advertisement therefore? There are so many kinds of sayings. One of the famous sayings like that “advertisement is a business of words”. According to the Definition Committee of American Marketing Association (FangWei, 1997, 20), advertisement is defined as follows: Advertisement is the not personal munication of information usually paid for and usually persuade in nature about products, services or ideas by identified sponsors through the various media. Advertisement provides a valuable service to society and its members, because it defines the meaning and the role of products, services, and institutions for consumers. Advertisement also tell the consumer what a specific product, brand or service should do when it is used and thus help him or her to understand and evaluate experience with the products and services that he or she uses. On the other hand, by making people aware of products, service and ideas, advertisement promote sales and profits. Finally, advertisement is one of the major forces that are helping improve the standard of living around the world. 攀枝花學院本科畢業(yè)論文 Body 3 B. The Origins of the Advertisement “Advertisement may be described as the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it.” Stephen Butler Leacock, Englishbore economist and humorist. And in the book of History of advertisement by Henry Sampson, he described the origins of ads: “...there is little doubt that the desire among tradesmen and merchants to make good their wares has had an existence almost as long as the customs of buying and selling, and it is but natural to suppose that advertisements in some shape or form have existed not only from time immemorial, but almost for all times.” Because the spoken language development is earlier than reads and writes, the earliest advertisement medium naturally was the pet phrase. Advertisement has been called “the voice of business”, for it announces new products and describes new uses and improved features of familiar ones. It seeks to make people know the things they need and to make them want to buy these things, and it tells what products or services are on the market, and how they can be obtained. C. Basic Functions of Advertisement Generally, advertisement has the basic functions as followed: Information Function: the information should be real, concrete, simple and easy to understand, lets the consumer understand as soon as they look. Demand Creation Function: After the consumer understood the related modity or the service information, it should instill into the brandnew desire to the consumer, make him to feel curious, to own the interest, to think one truly own the purchase needing. Get Action Function: The consumer is convinced accepted the thing which in the advertisement propagandizes, receives is must be urging him to adapt the motion purchase. Goodwill Establishment Function: Above five kinds of functions cause the consumer finally to adapt the actual motion to purchase. 攀枝花學院本科畢業(yè)論文 Body 4 Characteristics of EnglishChinese Advertisement Translation A. The Characteristics of the EnglishChinese Advertisement Languages EnglishChinese advertisement translation is a mercial activity with preset purpose. In order to make the information accessible to audience effectively, the choice of words in advertisement is very cautious and skillful. The aim of the advertiser is quite specific. Let’s take a look at the characteristics of the EnglishChinese advertisement languages. 1. Rhetorical Characteristics: Frequent Use of Pun and Alliteration Pun is an amusing use of a word or phrase that has two meanings which is called the same sound but different meanings which is called Homonymy. Pun, the game of words, will leave a deep impression on readers by its readability, and humor. However, to make a successful and impressive pun is not easy. Except for its own meaning, the word used as a pun is usually closely related to the characteristics of a certain product or the band name of the product. Here we present several classic pun used advertisement. For example: “Give your hair a touch of spring Ask for more. (More is a famous band of cigarette) Give your business the sharp edge. (Sharp Corporation)…” Alliteration is the use of words that begin with the same sound in order to make a special municative effective. Usually they are pleasing to ears because of the clever choice of the word by the advertiser. In addition, the repetition of the beginning sound emphasizes the meaning the advertisement wants to express. Let’s take a look at the examples. “…, everything you need for that big bargain basement special. …, and vitamin E to leave skin soft and smooth” Using of rhetoric can solve some problems and make the modities known by the target consumers. 攀枝花學院本科畢業(yè)論文 Body 5 2. Frequent Use of Emotive Words A close scrutiny of recent advertisements suggests that the softsell technique is now popular. By softsell technique we mean the one that favors a more emotive and less directive approach to promote a product, mainly focusing on the building of brand image. As a result,